Day old sex linked sexing from TSC

[Cosmickitty]

I just picked up 4 chicks from the pullet bin at tractor supply. 2 olive eggers and 2 cream legbars. I thought I had read that make olive eggers had a black spot and the females didn’t, but all of them in the bin had the white spot. Does it depend on what they are bred with?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Olive-eggers can be made with a wide variety of different breeds, some combinations sexlinked and some not. Ones that are sexlinked are generally sexlinked using the barring gene, meaning the male chicks have a white spot on their heads, not a black one, and female chicks do not have this spot.

Please note that this does not mean that your chicks are male, as they may be from a cross that includes barring but is not sexlinked! Tractor Supply generally gets their chicks from either Hoover's Hatchery, which seems like their most common pick, or on occasion from Privett Hatchery. I do not know if Hoover's makes a sexlink cross for their olive-eggers, but Privett's olive-eggers are barred whether they are male or female. I would assume if all of them in the bin had the spot that these are Privett's olive-eggers and likely pullets. If you update in about 6 weeks, someone should be able to confirm their sex for you.